Predicting Outcomes in United States-Japan Trade Negotiations: The Political Process of the Structural Impediments Initiative »

NORIO NAKA is a visiting fellow at the Center for Japanese Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

The U.S.-Japan Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) was an attempt in which U.S. and Japanese officials tried to solve trade frictions and adjust their economic systems both by creating an international epistemic community and regime and by accelerating domestic structural change through a joint bureaucratic structure (working group) and mutual pressure. With four multidimensionally-layered conceptual models, the book systematically describes and explains the political process of the SII, the reasons for its initiation and reaching agreements. Unlike most studies on U.S.-Japan trade negotiations which use the theoretically undefined case study method, the author tested propositions focussing on different factors (level of U.S. pressure, size and strength of various transgovernmental coalitions, and level of perception gaps) for different degrees of Japanese trade concessions across five SII issue areas (saving-investment patterns, the distribution system, exclusionary business practices, land policy, and keiretsu) by combining a detailed case study with content analysis of newspaper indexes and meeting records. The book adds to the tradition of U.S.-Japan trade negotiation/decision-making research with great insights and practical implications. It further develops Graham Allison's approach, applying it to international trade negotiation process, thereby enhancing the power of describing, explaining, and predicting outcomes of international trade negotiations. Intended for graduate students and specialists studying U.S.-Japan trade negotiations as well as policymakers practicing such negotiations.

To know why and how the SII was initiated and agreed upon and whatfactors contributed to different degrees of Japanese trade concessions, four multidimensionally-layered conceptual models systematically describe and explain the political process of the SII. Unlike most studies on U.S.-Japan trade negotiations which use the theoretically undefined case study method, the author tested different propositions for different degrees of Japanese trade concessions across five SII issue areas by combining a detailed case study with content analysis of newspaper indexes and meeting records. The book adds to the tradition of U.S.-Japan trade negotiation/decision-making research. It further develops Graham Allison's approach, applying it to the international trade negotiation process, thereby enhancing the power of describing, explaining, and predicting outcomes of international trade negotiations. Intended for graduate students and specialists studying U.S.-Japan trade negotiations as well as policy-makers practicing such negotiations.

Booknews

Naka (Japanese studies, U. of California-Berkeley) seeks an alternative to the international trade negotiations between the US and Japan, an understanding of crisis control relating to the stalled talks, and a new approach to studying the talks, by examining the US-Japan Structural Impediments Initiative of 1989- 90. He explains why the governments at that time chose a rule- based rather than outcome-based approach, how it has had a major impact on Japanese policymakers and business leaders, and how it provides a framework for a larger multilateral trade regime under the GATT and WTO. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)